Ray Allen on Stephen Curry: ‘He’s creating a lane all of his own’
Most can agree that we’ve never seen anything like Stephen Curry, but that hasn’t stopped us from trying to figure out just where the heck this monster sprung from.
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His father Dell, a knockout shooter and one of the NBA’s first three-point specialists, is the obvious (and, well, literal) starting point, but he doesn’t share Steph’s quickness and handle. Nate Archibald and Isiah Thomas had the handle, but not near the efficiency or shooting acumen. Pete Maravich had close to the entire package, but he chucked his lacking pro teams out of plenty of games. Steve Kerr, Craig Hodges and Kyle Korver were too specialized. Ray Allen and Reggie Miller were too shooting guard’ish, Steve Nash was too point guard’ish; and while Phil Jackson’s comparison to Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf wasn’t wrong, we’ve got to do better.
Then comes Ray Allen, the man whose all-time three-point makes record Curry is bearing down on (he could have it licked, even if his production dims a bit, by 2020), to remind us that Stephen Curry isn’t the Next Anything. He’s the first Stephen Curry.
Via FoxSports, from SLAM Magazine:
He’s creating a lane all of his own. People comparing him to me, to Reggie [Miller]. But I think Steph is in a category of his own. Just being able to have great handles the way he has with the ball, to be able to score at will by getting to the basket. Myself, Reggie Miller, Kyle Korver, Klay Thompson—we play a different game. We’re shooters. We come off screens, pindowns—Steph can do that, but he’s creating a different lane. Point guards haven’t been able to do what he’s been able to do, because he’s mixing that 2 guard-ish in there with having the great handles of a point guard.
When I broke the three-point record, they (Steph and Klay) watched that and it became something they said in their mind, this is what I want to do. Now, there are kids watching him, saying I want to work on these things, I want to be just like Steph.
There have been point guards that look to score first before, dating back half a century. There have been point guards with endless range, and there have been point guards that give up the ball in order to run off of screens to free up for long jumpers (or a chance at a frightening triple-threat position).
There has never been anything like this. There has never been anything remotely close to a guy taking nearly 900 three-pointers in a season and making 45 percent of them.
All while running the league’s best offense, keeping everyone else on the floor happy, leading the league in scoring and free throw percentage. Curry turned the ball over on 13 percent of the possessions he used up this season. Steve Nash turned the ball over on 19 percent of the possessions he used up in his career, and topped 20 percent (including 27 in his final year with the team) in each of his starting seasons with the Suns. Also, Golden State won 73 games this year.
This is sick, is what we’re saying. Everyone else, by comparison, just has the sniffles.
Presuming we should be comparing anyone to Stephen Curry in the first place.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
